Yesterday marked the first full day of training on my training calendar.  It was exhilerating to be working out again!  But, I must admit, I am utterly shocked at how out of shape I have become since my race at Steelhead.  As I write, I realize, I don't think I was as ready as I could have been for Steelhead.  I got too soft and lost focus more often then not.  

This time around I feel as though I'm more dedicated.  Getting back to yesterday's training, I started off with getting up earlier than I'm used to (5:00am) and got in a morning ab workout with my new stability ball.  Saying that it was an adventure is an understatement!  I managed to get regular crunches down pat, but when I attempted stability crunch combos, I kept falling off the ball much to the dismay of my neighbors beneath.  To simplify the situation and to stave off getting frustrated so early in the morning I resorted to doing 3 sets of standing russian twists and 3 sets of bent knee v-ups and called it a morning.  

During lunch, I have figured out that on Mondays and Fridays I can squeeze in a quick swim at the high school at which I work at.  The swim, as much as I dread the first shocking moments of cold, felt strong.  I cranked out 1500yds with most of the yardage coming from warm up and drill work.  I definitely need to put more emphasis on my core as my stabilization in the water was not where it could be.  The only crummy part about swimming during this time is how rushed I am to get dressed and grab a quick bite to eat before finishing up the work day.

After school, I went ahead and set the bike and trainer up in the cardio room of the high school.  I got a bit of a boost with having the HS swim team in their working out and blasting the music.  With all the bodies in their though, the heat definitely spiked.  I haven't sweat that much in almost a year!  The bike workout was good overall, but I pushed it too much in the beginning.  The workout mainly consisted of a 10 minut warm up and rolling hills for 45 minutes.  I finished up with 5 isolated leg spins for each leg and a nice 5 min warm down.  With all the sweat I started freezing and fortunately had a spare shirt in the car (what a livesaver that shirt was!)  Time to go and finish work and get my next workout in tonight.....boo for running!

This blog was originally created to chronicle my journey to becoming and ironman.  A journey I began two years ago to honor my late father and to prove to myself that I could do something so physically and psychologically demanding that only 1% of the population would dare try it.  Although I have not posted in a while, the final chapter of my journey begins now.

On September 14th, 2015 I awoke at 5:30am in Madison, WI and joined a quietly growing line of individuals who, just the previous day, took part in the 2015 Ironman as volunteers.  We represented a large chunk of what will be the participants in the 2016 Ironman on September 11th.  At 7:30am, the doors for registration opened and before I knew it, I was standing at a table providing my regristration information and handing over my credit card.  After only a few minutes, it was done.  As of this post I am 350 days away from competing in my first full Ironman.

Since registering, I have been experiencing a flury of emotions.  Everything from excitement, to fear, I plan on being prepared for this race more so then I had been for my previous half-iron distances.  This coming Monday is when I begin to hit my training again with an emphasis on strength work and core work to help in prepping my body for the toll that a full Ironman will take on me.  It will be a long journey, full of twists and all the highs and lows that one would experience, but I am ready.  I am ready for this.  I WILL BE AN IRONMAN.